NextGen Voice Featured Article

BTES and Alcatel-Lucent Offer 1-Gigabit Broadband Service

Today’s data-hungry smartphones and tablet users don’t want to wait for few seconds for a computer or website to respond. Likewise, nobody likes to wait when he/she is downloading something from Internet.

To enable BTES customers to download as much data as 200 songs in just six seconds, Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (BTES) and Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) have today announced the availability of 1 Gigabit broadband service to all 33,000 residential and business electric customers of BTES.

This 1 Gigabit broadband service is powered by Alcatel-Lucent’s gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology. Bristol’s network will accommodate speeds of up to one gigabit-per-second (Gbps), which is 10 times faster than the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s National Broadband Plan calling for 100 Mbps speeds for 100 million households nationwide by 2020.

The service is also beneficial for education, from elementary through university levels. Many schools are also adopting this service to promote their own levels of education. An elementary school located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, for instance, is joining SMART Board Technology and BTES’ gigabit service to offer virtual field trips to learn about other parts of the world.

Dr. Michael Browder, CEO at BTES said in a statement, “Bristol now has one of the fastest, totally built out networks in the United States. To give an example of how fast, you can download about two hours of video or upwards of 200 songs in just six seconds, for our residential customers, that means one person in the household can download a movie, while another is playing an online game, while another is watching an HDTV program – all without slowing down any of the activities. For our business customers, it opens the way for transporting and accessing 'big data', which is critical for economic development of the area.”

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida. Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.